Chapter 26 - Immortal fairy
Chapter 26 - Immortal fairy
Outside the window, the Yue siblings’ practice in the bamboo forest temporarily came to an end.
Lin Shu heard Yue Ruoyun say: “Strange, I can’t enter the dreamscape today at all, can you?”
Yue Ruohe said: “Yes, someone said that something went wrong, so we can’t go in for the time being.”
“Here’s hoping that it will be resolved soon–they promised that Zhou Tian Martial Arts Courtyard would be open to new disciples every September 24th, but it’s been impossible to enter today, making people anxious.”
Yue Ruohe: “With your ordinary skills, I’m afraid you’ll just be beaten into melon rinds when you go to the Martial Arts Courtyard.”
“As if,” Yue Ruoyun said. “If I’m being beaten into melon rinds, you’ll be beaten into an even bigger melon rind.”
Lin Shu didn’t intend to eavesdrop on the squabbling between the two people, but the bamboo forest was very quiet, and any little movement could easily be heard.
The opening of Zhou Tian Martial Arts Courtyard on September 24th was an important event. Lin Shu had encountered too many things in the past few days and had almost forgotten about it. He really had to thank Yue Ruoyun for mentioning it.
Institutes, especially the Immortal Daoist Institution, do not encourage disciples to learn how to fight each other. One reason was because immortal daoists had immense power, and one battle could destroy the school’s infrastructure. Another reason was that swords didn’t have eyes. If one wanted to display their true ability, they would have to know how to stop their sword before hurting someone–for example, today, even with Ling Fengxiao’s level of cultivation, forcibly stopping her sword resulted in internal injuries, let alone others. Thus, if the disciples fought amongst each other, there would definitely be blood spilled and injuries everywhere if they were careless. It would require a long period of teaching, but would delay their schoolwork, which was incredibly inappropriate.
However, the immortal arts cannot be limited to individual families alone. Discussing martial arts was a great opportunity for the progress of the realm, and it was impossible for the academy to stop it, thus Zhou Tian Martial Arts Courtyard was born in the dreamscape.
Every disciple can choose weapons in Zhou Tian Martial Arts Courtyard at will, and find someone with the same strength to challenge–there was no need to restrain themselves, and could use their family’s skills to fight with their opponent as they liked. Even if life was lost, after the battle, it would restore everyone’s original state.
Due to the existence of the Martial Arts Courtyard, a series of dreamscape mechanics also came into being, such as everyone’s record rankings, win rate, and a brief introduction to their martial arts style... and even with a betting system, with jade souls as bets. Every kind of mechanic was present, not a single one was missing.
At the same time, the Martial Arts Courtyard had one other power.
It was an anonymous fighting ground.
In order to prevent the rising grudges from being brought to reality, anyone can choose to change their name and appearance in the courtyard. However, if they were still exposed because of their martial arts style, then that wouldn’t be an issue–still, there were thousands of people in the academy, each cultivating their immortal daoism, and there were few opportunities to meet each other, so that kind of interaction would be rare.
In other words, when one enters the Zhou Tian arena, one can fight against immortal cultivators from the entire academy to test their martial arts, and can even have their identity hidden to prevent any disputes in real life.
This was Lin Shu’s heart’s desire.
Just randomly changing his appearance, and being able to enter the dreamscape to find different sorts of sparring partners to practice his sword skills. When they return to reality, no one will know who he was.
He would also be able to properly look at the strength of people in this world.
In reality, he was weak, pitiful and helpless, but when he entered the dream, it was a different matter. There was no difference between his physical state and the state he was in during his previous life.
His self in the previous life, since he was called a genius that only be seen in a thousand years by the master, the kind where he was born for the sword and would die by the sword, his skill shouldn’t be too bad.
But thinking of this, he couldn’t help but wonder about the mechanisms in the dreamscape.
How did the dreamscape actually determine the person’s strength inside?
Relying on a person’s imagination? Following their subconscious? Or according to their soul?
It was impossible for it to be by imagination, or everyone would have had the power to destroy worlds in the dreamscape.
The subconscious mind was also not very reliable. Even modern science was unable to fully capture it, so it really was quite incredible.
But if a person entered the dream via their spirit, their strength would also be determined by their spirit. That made sense, and it was no wonder that Mr. Meng didn’t doubt that he was a well-known and upright disciple without asking further.
If that was true... then it meant that his soul, that state, was still here.
Once this state had been reached, the only obstacle to immortal cultivation was this body. As long as he could get through his meridians, build his foundation, eat a few golden pills...even the boundaries after reaching this state would not be too hard to break through.
Other people’s immortal cultivation was like crossing mountains, with the next mountain being taller than the last. His immortal cultivation was like a mountain followed by a wide expanse of flat land that one could gallop straight across, but the first mountain was the Himalayas.
The things that could change his meridians&#k2013;peerless cheats, or heaven and earth treasures, or panaceas; they were all things that he could hardly obtain right now.
The reason, was that he was poor.
Xiao Lingyang said that he could give him those things, as long as he stayed further away from Ling Fengxiao.
But Ling Fengxiao and him had never been close to begin with, so there was no way to go further.
When he thought of Ling Fengxiao, his train of thought was derailed again.
–What exactly did this person want to do?
Lin Shu laid on his desk, staring blankly at the moon outside the window.
There wouldn’t be pies dropping from the sky. The Big Miss suddenly becoming nicer to him, there must be some sort of trap involved.
He had to be more vigilant in the future.
As he wildly thought like this for a while, the jade symbol in front of him suddenly shimmered.
“The dreamscape has been stabilized, and Daoist friends can enter at will. However, Shuji Zhen Ren’s free travel method has not been completely fixed. If anything happens, asking for Daoist friends to be magnanimous.”
–Shuji Zhen Ren was famous for his formations in the world of immortal daoism. Most of the formations in the Shangling dreamscape was done by him.
Now that it was stabilized, Lin Shu smoothly entered into the dreamscape.
What was strange was that there was no trace of Mr. Meng on the mountain today.
Lin Shu walked into the pavilion where Mr. Meng often rested at and found his book on the table.
“Daoist friend, Mr. Shuji is roaming right now, and is unable to control the formations. His formation powers are unstable, so he will be leaving for the time being, and will return after 30 days. During this period of time, if there is anything, it will be communicated through the jade seal. Wishing peace to the Daoist friend.”
It turned out that there was a problem with the program, and the system had failed.
Without Mr. Meng, how was Zhou Tian Martial Arts Courtyard supposed to be entered?
Lin Shu lingered at the top of the mountain for a while, and finally found an obscure path between the jungle shadows.
Although the trail was small, he was certain that it had never appeared before.
He pushed the bushes aside and walked through. The path was filled with white mist, and after stepping in, the world in front of him suddenly changed.
In the white fog, a bronze mirror appeared in front of Lin Shu.
–This was a scene he had read in <Bai Xiaosheng’s Detailed Explanation of Shangling Academy>. It was the site of Zhou Tian Martial Arts Courtyard.
Lin Shu simply thought of his appearance in his previous life, and his image in the mirror gradually changed.
He changed his face, but still wore the robes prescribed by the Academy. Like this, he didn’t seem too out of place, but also wouldn’t be recognised by others.
Lin Shu pushed the mirror aside calmly, and walked forward.
The foggy world suddenly changed.
Before he could see anything in front of him, voices were ringing at his ears.
“The match between Hong Xianzi and Yan Xuan is about to begin, 20 jade souls per bet, buy it away now–“
“This brother, can you enlighten me?”
“Brother Qin, your “Dragon Dancing in the Water” technique was really impressive! Truly admirable!”
“Today’s dreamscape isn’t stable, so the new brother and sister disciples were late in entering, we have to properly welcome them later.”
Lin Shu thought, no wonder Jasper Sky always looked so deserted. It turned out that everyone was gathered in the Martial Arts courtyard to fight.
The white mist disappeared, and the scene in front of him gradually became clear. He looked forward and saw a vast water surface, dotted with high, low, and small arena platforms. He was on a pier, with a mirror-like boulder on either side of the pier, and a variety of messages rolling on one side, such as “Rainbow Fairy and Yan Xuandi’s thirteenth arena battle: 9 pm”, “Qin Qing and Xuan Zi’s sixteenth arena battle, awaiting fellow Daoists’ critiques.”
The other boulder didn’t move. Instead, it was engraved with many golden names, and upon a closer look, it was a ranking list.
The first person’s name was very conspicuous, named Xiao Shao. The second person’s name was smaller, the third person’s name was even smaller, and below, all the names were dense and small.
According to Bai Xiaosheng, this boulder was called “Zhou Tian True Martial Rank”. The ranking fluctuated with the results of each competition, and the person in first place would receive jade soul rewards, similar to receiving first class in each lesson.
–He had found another way to obtain jade souls. If he worked hard every day, maybe he would no longer be poor.
As Lin Shu was thinking, he suddenly noticed that someone was looking at himself.
He turned around.
When he turned, he felt that something wasn’t quite right.
After he turned, he found that there was a huge problem.
The man across from him looked at him in surprise–with the face he had in the previous life!
Lin Shu looked at himself.
He was suddenly afraid.
He was wearing white clothes.
Very white.
And yarn.
Light yarn.
The kind that girls use.
“You...” The person opposite him said. “You used my body! Return it to me!”
The image he had set for himself, was impossible to wear female clothing. The person opposite said that he was using the wrong body, which must be the truth.
As for the person opposite him, that appearance and dressing, it was what he had personally set for himself before the mirror just now.
Lin Shu: “You also used my body.”
The person said: “Yes, I don’t know how to return it, you better not be an ugly monster!”
With that said, the person went to glance at their reflection in the mirror, and then said: “Even though this face isn’t that bad, but I definitely do not want a man’s body! How can we switch back?”
Lin Shu also approached the water.
Among the blue waves, there was a fairy in white clothes that floated like clouds, with black hair half done up, the other half let down. She had cold and beautiful facial features, looking like an immortal fairy with a high temperament.
Lin Shu felt a little breathless.
The person who had his body said: “I definitely will not use a man’s body.” The person had to be a girl, choosing such an outstanding fairy-like image, but it was stolen by him.
The girl said: “I think the dream must have made an error. Let’s go in again.”
Lin Shu: “Okay.”
He pulled his consciousness out of the dream, went in again, and walked down the path.
However, this time, there was no bronze mirror at all, and he went directly to the dock.
The girl stood on the pier with his body and made eye contact with him.
There was no way to change their images, even when entering again. The atmosphere was very awkward.
At this moment, a person suddenly appeared out of nowhere again.
After getting his balance, he felt his head, and shouted loudly, going to the water to see his reflection.
“What... what’s going on?” He said. “I carefully prepared my image to be handsome and attractive, how can I become a bald idiot now?!”
Now, it was the three of them staring at each other.
“I remember Mr. Meng saying that if there was an accident, he wanted us to be magnanimous,” the girl said.
The third person said: “This accident is seriously too annoying!”
Lin Shu: “... I’ll be leaving first.”
Looking at this reflection, he couldn’t accept it.
The girl with the face of Lin Shu in his previous life also said: “I’ll leave too.”
The third person said: “I can’t accept that I look like an idiot, I’m also going.”
Lin Shu returned to the real world. He held a mirror, and recalled the appearance of the fairy in white, and decided not to step back into the Martial Arts Courtyard before Mr. Meng returned.
Whatever, whatever.
What winning and then receiving jade souls, no, he would rather be poor for another month.
The author has something to say: Shuji Zhen Ren going out to roam actually resulted in this sort of tragedy.
A Life of Wrong Love: After acknowledging that my fiancee had the wrong gender, what should I do?
Trace It Back To The Source: Where did the initial misunderstanding come from?
This issue of <Approaching The Immortals> will give you a big hint.
soya: thank you for the wait! alostcrab and i will be back on track now!